The Essays of Montaigne — Volume 15 by Michel de Montaigne
page 38 of 88 (43%)
page 38 of 88 (43%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
"Ense maritali nemo confossus adulter
Purpureo Stygias sanguine tinxit aquas." ["Never did adulterer slain by a husband stain with purple blood the Stygian waters."] Lucullus, Caesar, Pompey, Antony, Cato, and other brave men were cuckolds, and knew it, without making any bustle about it; there was in those days but one coxcomb, Lepidus, that died for grief that his wife had used him so. "Ah! tum te miserum malique fati, Quem attractis pedibus, patente porta, Percurrent raphanique mugilesque:" ["Wretched man! when, taken in the fact, thou wilt be dragged out of doors by the heels, and suffer the punishment of thy adultery."--Catullus, xv. 17.] and the god of our poet, when he surprised one of his companions with his wife, satisfied himself by putting them to shame only, "Atque aliquis de dis non tristibus optat Sic fieri turpis:" ["And one of the merry gods wishes that he should himself like to be so disgraced."--Ovid, Metam., iv. 187.] and nevertheless took anger at the lukewarm embraces she gave him; complaining that upon that account she was grown jealous of his |
|